Mumbai train blasts: Death sentence for 5 convicts, 7 get life term

An Indian court has sentenced five men to death and jailed seven others for life for planning bomb blasts that struck Mumbai commuter trains in 2006, killing more than 180 people and wounding hundreds.

The prosecution had sought capital punishment for Ehtesham Sidduiqui, Asif Khan, Faisal Shaikh, Naveed Khan, Kamal Ansari, Dr Tanveer Ansari, Mohammed Ali and Sajid Ansari.

The 12 convicts have also proclaimed their innocence, with a defense lawyer on Wednesday saying they had been “framed” and would appeal against the sentence in the high court.

A special court set up under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) which is presided by Additional Sessions Judge Y D Shinde on September 11 had convicted 12 of the 13 accused to stood trial.

A total of 13 men were arrested on various charges, including transporting, planting the bombs in pressure cookers and placing them inside coaches.

Defence lawyers subsequently examined nine witnesses to show the court that the accused have undergone reformation and and thus may not be given capital punishment.

Soheil Mehmood Shaikh (43) and Zamir Ahmad Shaikh (36) have been given life imprisonment.

The blasts were triggered at the first class compartments of local trains between 6.24 and 6.35 PM, when lakhs of office-goers use Mumbai’s local trains to return home. In his final arguments on September 23, Thakare said that none of the accused presented any mitigating circumstances that qualified them to seek leniency; not their ages, not their educational qualifications or their family situation and the conditions during their pre-trial incarceration. The blast took place between Khar Road-Santacruz, Bandra-Khar Road, Jogeshwari-Mahim Junction, Mira Road- Bhayander, Matunga- Mahim Junction and Borivali.

Trial resumed two years later, after a go-ahead from the Supreme Court.

Five among the seven convicts awarded life sentence were trained in Pakistan, while Mohammed Majid Shafi helped transport Pakistanis from Bangladesh border to Mumbai and then back to Bangladesh after the terror blasts.